NOVEL NEXT Chapter 76: Summon realm?
[Summon "Fire Wrymling" — Unsummoned]
• Status: Returned to Summon Realm
• Reason: Battle Complete — Summon no longer required
Another line of text materialized immediately after, glowing faintly in the dim air.
[Summons Available: 1]
• Fire Wrymling (Mythic-Class — Bound by Flame Pact)
Drahon stared at the words, letting them settle in.
Wait…, there was a summon realm?
He almost exchanged glances with the air at this point. There were really a lot of things he didn't know about the game-like world, and this was one of them.
What exactly was a summon realm?
Was it a place where dragons just resided and waited to be summoned by their respective owners?
He never even knew there was something like that until the system mentioned it. And the way it was mentioned made it seem like it was something they had already known for long.
His gaze quickly darted to the others; they didn't seem to be bothered. Only he was bothered, at least to wonder!
From this brief theory he was having at that moment, did that mean that the summon realm was a whole different place altogether?
It could make sense, to be honest, it was making sense already…
Wait….!, what was he even saying. The summon realm is a realm on its own, for their summons. But what he wanted to know,.was it for only summons or their bonded dragons?
You know, what Drahon had always wondered when he first got his dragon was…, when they are unsummoned, where do they go to?
At first when he unsummoned his dragons, they just vanished; likewise, when he summoned them…, they just came out of nowhere.
But the case was different when they were fighting against the Draconic goblins. When they summoned their dragons, it tore from the skies, and that had made Drahon wonder: 'How?'
It wasn't a persistent thought though, or something he paid so much attention to, but it had come like a flash, like sort of permeating his mind just a bit.
And now, he was hearing there was actually a summon realm?
You know, Drahon had a lot of mysteries to unravel, and this might just be one of them (at least a new one).
He wanted to know so badly if the summon realm was where their bonded dragons usually go to, or was there another realm for it?
He tried to focus his thoughts into one single consciousness, now oblivious of his surroundings and the things around him, like Ayvira and Devon.
'Can I know more about the summon realm?' he asked his system, not by speaking and not through his mind but through his consciousness. He too was sort of surprised with what he did.
The system replied in his mind:
[Information is limited]
Drahon was surprised. How is information limited!
He was sort of angry at this point.
The fuck was wrong with his system!
How was information limited!
The only time this kind of thing had happened to Drahon was back at level one with the barbarian when his system said information was limited.
The thing Drahon hated about this and was angry about was that when the system scan of the barbarian had shown: [Information is limited], he didn't know who he was or what he was trying to do or why he had given them shelter and food till this very day.
If that was to be the same with the summon realm info, then it would take a lot of time for him to know what the realm was all about.
'Damn…. ARGHH, fuck this cursed world.'
Now onto the Fire Wrymling that had been summoned itself…
From what he knew, most people had to grind for weeks to get even a Common-class creature bound to them. And here he was, with a Mythic-class Fire Wrymling just casually appearing mid-battle to save his life. He wasn't sure if he'd been incredibly lucky, or if the Dragon Game had some bizarre, twisted plan for him or…
Wait…
That wasn't it. He was sure the Dragon Game wouldn't want to save any of its players. That was if the Dragon Game was actually an entity or something like that…, which he wasn't sure (he was sure he was 99.9 percent wrong either way).
The reason behind his luck might be because of his dragon lineage. Maybe his half-dragon ancestors were trying to protect him.
I mean, that could be the case. It would be unbelievable if he hadn't met one in the dream-like world after surviving level one.
So…, anything was possible…
But it was only speculations…
Anything was possible but…, he wasn't so sure…
'Damn, so lost in thoughts!' Drahon now felt scared that perhaps he might have paused and just begun having speculations.
But then, when he turned to look at the others, everything was surprisingly the same before he turned to look forward.
Seemingly like only five seconds had passed all this time.
Wait!.... Only five seconds did pass.
Devon now leaned toward him. It seemed like he was walking up to Drahon at first, but no, he was instead going to look at the dead corpse of the Dead Boss monster.
He looked at it for quite some time before looking back at Drahon.
"Finally, the goddamn creature is… no more!"
Drahon forced a smile, but he wasn't actually at ease here.
Drahon noticed Ayvira was approaching him, about to ask about the dragon.
But before any more words could be exchanged, the system pinged again. This time, the letters were huge, impossible to ignore.
[Dungeon Objective Complete]
• All Hostile Entities Eliminated.
• Draconic Rat Boss Monster — Defeated.
[Gate to Exit: OPENED]
• Location: Dungeon Entrance
• Time Limit: 2 minutes before gate seals
"Two minutes?!" Ayvira snapped, her eyes flashing, suddenly forgetting what she was to ask Drahon.
They all looked at each other, then at their surroundings.
"Damn, we're far from it," Drahon muttered. "We ran so much from the exact place we were teleported to."
"Far as in…" Devon tilted his head.
"Far as in…, trace our steps, go back through the places we passed to come here, jump that cursed hole again, and pray we don't waste a second," Drahon finished.
No more discussion was needed at this point; they bolted…
---
The dungeon felt different now.
Not quieter— just… emptier.
Without the chittering and claw-scraping of the Draconic rats, the halls echoed with only their footsteps. Even so, a faint green haze still lingered in the air from the Boss's venom, drifting lazily in the torchlight. It gave the place a sickly glow that made Drahon's skin crawl.
How did the saliva get there in the first place?
Their boots pounded against the stone, retracing the same twisting corridors they had sprinted through earlier, except now there was no enemy at their back. Still, the adrenaline didn't leave. Every turn they took seemed to replay the chase in Drahon's mind: the roar, the crashes, the slamming of claws against stone. His body moved on instinct, like the monster was still there.
"Left!" Devon called again as they reached the same split they'd taken before.
Ayvira took the corner without hesitation, her long hair waving behind her from the sudden turn.
The hole was next.
Drahon spotted it before the others did, a yawning black gap in the floor, the same two-meter drop they'd nearly died at the first time.
Devon didn't slow, vaulting over it in a clean leap. Ayvira followed, her landing a little shaky, but she kept running.
Drahon jumped last.
His boots hit the stone, and for a brief second, he thought about the Boss's claws nearly snatching him mid-air earlier. His chest tightened, but he pushed the thought down and kept moving.
The dungeon layout began to feel familiar now. The smell of the place, the way certain stones were cracked, the faint scratches left in the walls from the chase, it all told him they were close.
Finally, they reached the wider main corridor, the one that led directly toward the dungeon's heart.
The gate was there, just ahead.
It stood where it had always been, a massive arch carved into the dungeon wall, runes etched into the stone from floor to ceiling. Before, it had been nothing but dormant rock. Now, the runes glowed in golden light, swirling like molten metal under glass. Inside the arch was a shimmering veil of energy, almost like heat haze.
But what caught Drahon's attention wasn't the gate, it was the floor around it.
The bodies of the Draconic rats lay scattered where they had fallen during the earlier fight. Or rather, what was left of them.
Each corpse was glowing faintly, edges breaking apart into golden motes. Slowly, steadily, they were dissolving into the air, piece by piece, tails first, then claws, then skulls.
It was almost peaceful. Almost.
"Guess this is what happens when a dungeon resets," Devon murmured. "Another set of players like us might, I don't know, face the same thing?"
Drahon didn't reply. His eyes were locked on the way the gate's light reflected off the dissolving bodies, making the entire entrance glow with a surreal brilliance. It was the kind of sight you only saw once, something too strange and beautiful to explain to anyone who hadn't been there.
But what he wondered was, the details of the gate were now more different than when he first saw them.
They didn't waste time.
With only seconds left, they crossed the final stretch, their boots crunching over the last fading fragments of the rats' remains.
[Gate Recognizes Dungeon Clearance]
• All Players May Exit.
[Warning: Remaining inside after timer expires will trigger dungeon reset]
They stepped through.
It was like walking into liquid sunlight. The golden veil folded around them, warm and weightless, pulling them forward. For a split second, Drahon felt as if the ground had vanished entirely, like he was floating in the void between worlds.
Then...
Light.
Solid ground underfoot.
The air here was different, fresher, clearer, free from the damp and venomous stink of the dungeon. The sound of the gate closing behind them was a deep, resonant hum— final and absolute.
They had made it!